Gutting the Voting Rights Act was wrong. Black voter turnout, however high, won’t change that.: Long before the first ballot was counted in this election, Black voters had already lost something precious: a crucial protection against politicians trying to draw away our power.
In April, the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act’s protection against racially discriminatory electoral maps. In Louisiana, the consequences were immediate: a congressional map with two majority-Black districts was replaced by one with only a single such district. Across the country, politicians moved to surgically crack and undermine Black political power, a precursor to attacks on brown voters and the further degeneration of a functioning multi-racial democracy. Black voters came first, but Latino and AAPI and Native American voters are also in their crosshairs. Because authoritarians despise diversity, especially when we have the audacity to speak up.
The way Black Americans meet such attacks has always signaled how the nation can be saved from its worst impulses.
Now, as Americans vote in the first federal general election since that decision, how Black voters respond matters to all of us. Because authoritarians never stop at the first target, and the way Black Americans meet such attacks has always signaled how the nation can be saved from its worst impulses.
An early indication of resistance comes from Louisiana itself. Black voters accounted for nearly 32 percent of ballots recorded on the first day of early voting, a larger share than on almost any other opening day in the past 18 years, and Verite News in New Orleans reported that during the state’s week of early voting, “More Black voters cast early ballots this year than in any other midterm or gubernatorial election in the past decade.” According to that newsroom, the previous highwater mark was 156,000 early votes from Black voters, but, “This year, it was nearly 180,000.”
It’s not just Louisiana. According to reports across the country, voters of color are surging to the polls, led by the… https://www.ms.now/opinion/louisiana-callais-black-voters-midterms-redistricting